Park County ARES Region 2 District 3 was activated for exercise Polar Express on 18 Oct 2014 at 0800, with two members, Frank/WB4CIW, and Daniel/NØBN. WB4CIW operated from his home and NØBN operated from his vehicle for the duration of the exercise. During the exercise Park County passed two ICS-213’s via WinMor, peer to peer, and one NTS message.
The net was called at 0800 by WCØAAX on 3.8100. WB4CIW, Frank, and NØBN, Daniel, mobile, checked in. It immediately became obvious that NCS was having difficulty hearing many of the stations checking in. WB4CIW spent the most of the early part of the net assisting NCS with relays and fills.
Daniel traveled from Hartsel to Fairplay, back to Hartsel, and down Hwy 9 toward Guffey checking communications ability using 146.52 as a primary frequency. There were also SOTA members on “52” so at times we shifted frequencies so as to not interfere with their activities. NØBN was able to communicate simplex with WB4CIW as far south as a highpoint at milepost 31 which is several miles north of Guffey.
From Hartsel Fire Station, Daniel was able to communicate with Frank via simplex on 146.520 as well as MARC’s Badger repeater on 146.685- (pl 100.0). While operating mobile HF on 7.235, NØBN was able to checkin with WCØAAX EOC station and George NØNFW at Gilpin County EOC reported he was able to copy Daniel loud and clear. Daniel could not copy George very well at all and Frank was able to communicate with him and complete that connection between Frank’s home near Como and Gilpin EOC.
Daniel was unable to bring up the Colorado Connection repeaters near Salida and Leadville, and was also unable to trigger the Cheyenne Mountain Repeater Group repeater on Fremont Peak near Salida [145.295- (107.2).
When the bands shifted around 1030, NCS changed frequencies to 7 Mhz and the NTS system shifted to 7.230. With the frequency shift NCS was able to communicate with all stations and Frank shifted to the WinMor frequency and passed his traffic. Toward the end of the net Daniel passed his NTS message to Frank, for relay to the NTS net. Frank shifted to the NTS frequency passed Daniel’s message and then both secured from the net (1130) and met in Hartsel for lunch and conversation.
Submitted by Frank Lambert IV (WB4CIW) and Daniel Hazen (NØBN)
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